Drilling, completion, and production of hydrocarbon reservoir wells involve drilling boreholes that intersect or traverse hydrocarbon-bearing deposits. Typically, drilling rigs at the surface are used to drill boreholes to reach the location of subsurface oil or gas deposits and establish fluid communication between the deposits and the surface via the borehole. Downhole drilling equipment may be directed or steered to the oil or gas deposits using directional drilling techniques.
Evaluations of subterranean formations penetrated by the borehole can be used to identify subsurface formations having characteristics indicative of good production/drainage. To perform such evaluations, the drilling equipment may be removed from the borehole and a wireline tool can be deployed into the borehole to sample and/or test one or more formation fluids at various stations or positions of the wireline tool. Alternatively, the drilling equipment of a drill string may include a downhole tool to sample and/or test the fluids of the surrounding subterranean formation. The sampling may be accomplished using formation testing tools that retrieve the formation fluids at desired borehole positions or stations and/or test the retrieved fluids in situ. Alternatively, formation fluids may be collected in one or more chambers associated with the downhole tool. The fluid samples obtained from the subterranean formations can be brought to the surface and evaluated to determine the properties of the fluids and the condition of the subterranean formations, and thereby locate exploitable oil and/or gas deposits.
Formation fluid test data can be used to design completion equipment, or to plan trajectories of successive wells in the same reservoir or to monitor the reservoir over time in order to manage production and recovery, etc. . . .